Win2k and ATA/100 disks: SLOW

[LavaJockey]

My video captures are dropping lots fo frames even at 240x320 resolution. I
have a Gigabyte GA-7DXR motherboard with an Athlon 1400 Mhz CPU running
win2k on an IBM 5400 RPM ATA/66 disc. I have a second disk: Western Digital
ATA/100 100 gbyte disc. My problem: there are many disk errors in the
"Event Viewer" in win2k, and ATA/100 disk is very slow (less than 2
mbytes/sec) because of these errors.

Is there any way to force win2k to use the ATA/66 protocol when accessing
the ATA/100 disk? I can force it to use the ATA/33 protocol by using the
40-pin IDE cable and disk speed improves dramatically. I'd like to be able
to use that ATA/100 disk for video captures.

[disturbed1]

I'd check with your hardware maker. Maybe AMD has a utility.

Intel has a perfomance utility for their ATA/100 cards and P4 chips. It boosted my drive speed to 28MB/s on 2KPRO with NTFS. My HD is a Samsung ATA/100 5400rpm using the built Intel 82801.

For any one else with a P4 http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/iaa/

[cdr12468x]

Couple of tips: don't put an ATA66 and ATA100 drive on the same connection. For troubleshooting purpose disconnect one, or the other (run with one HD only) to see if it makes a difference. If you need both HDs connected put them on separate IDE channels. Double check whether you have Service Pack 2 installed on Win2K, if not, download the update from Microsoft (free). Why? The initial installation
of Win2K does not fully support the ATA100 implementation
(see Microsoft Tech.Support article Q249149 in http://search.support.microsoft.com). As disturbed1 suggested check with the MB manufacturer for driver updates for the particular chipset your motherboard incorporates.
You may also want to post the specific error messages from the Win2K error log - it provides others who try to help troubleshoot the problem with specifics.

[homerpez]

I can tell you I have no problems with my ATA-100 drive, even when configured as we're told not to (ATA-66 and 100 on one line). This is on Windows XP Pro, so it must have been fixed since 2000. Actually, I noticed an overall speed improvement on my system, vs. having two ATA-66's on the same line. This is odd because I still run the OS and all programs from the ATA-66 drive, and not so much as a swap file on the ATA-100 (only used for capturing and encoding storage). Yet, it's faster. Your results may vary.

I would say that it WOULD be a bad idea to have a hard drive AND CD-Rom on the same line, then you will see serious problems.

Looks like yours might be fixed by a 2000 service pack (maybe), or upgrade to XP. But try some utilities first.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: homerpez on 2002-01-16 14:32:24 ]</font>

[patrickm]

while i cant remember the exact solution, i'm pretty sure this is a known issue with win2k. it's difficult to get ATA100 to work, and it doesnt even default to ATA66. i think there was a registry edit you needed to do, and also make sure the hard disk controller is configured for DMA. use the MS IDE drivers for the controller, not the VIA bus master ones. they cause your drives to show up as SCSI devices, and basically they work like cd-roms. search the web for help forums, and maybe even the MS knowledge base. i'm pretty sure that had some info, (whether it helped or not i can't say). if nothing else, you can use parts of it to make better searches elsewhere.

[ballfam]

The solution to your problem is lies in the Western Digital firmware. I have the same drive (WD1000 Caviar), and I've had no real problems with it, but I ran it through a bunch of western digital analysis tools first to find bad sectors etc.. before formatting the drive. Anyway. There is a tool you can download from the western digital web site that will alow you to run some analysis tools to check the condition of your drive. These tools also allow you to switch the drive from 100 to 66 and 33, and even allow you to switch off UDMA.

[LavaJockey]

I tried the BIOS update. That was supposed to work, but did not. I tried the Windows Service Pack 2. That worked, I think, but it introduced some other problem which caused me to drop frames on the ATA/100 disk, as well as another ATA/33 disk, which had no problems previously. I didn't bother to
diagnose this any further. I finally tried the Western Digital utility and changed my ATA/100 drive to an ATA/66 drive, and that worked. Thanks to everyone for the help!

[Bstansbury]

Wow,,... I was considering converting my system over to Win2000 so I could get to the NTFS and eliminate the 4gb barrier for files,... but after reading some of your comments about the problems with Win2000 and Wester Digital drives,.... I'm not sure I want to do that.

I have been told by a lot of people,... just how terrible Win ME was and why they left it for greener pastures. Funny how I always hear about the new,..bigger,... problems they are having with Win98, Win2k, WinXp, etc.

I think I'll stay put for a while. :P

[alexsevennine]

@Bstansbury
My system is an Athlon 1400 and i have 60GB HD running with ME.
I did not know who is telling you that is not good for ripping?
I have no problems at all. All programs (DVDDecrypter, TMPGENG, VDUB,VCDEASY,TSCV,FLASK0.6,...) work fine. Maybe its a little slow in case of FileProcessing. But if you convert a DVD to VCD,SVCD or DIVx you need no speedy FileProcessing. You only need a quick CPU in my opinion. YOu only need it if you rip the DVD to HD, but i think it takes you 5minutes longer to stay.